Lee, not saying we weren't possibly doing those things I'm saying that's waht Childs blew for (I think) but if we were it was less blatant than the Cats...who got away with it.

Anyway that's my final word on it. You can't even really comment on the game becuase it was hard to gauge how good Les Cats were or how bad the Bulls were. But I will say this, I think they did pretty well to almost win!

Childs is a young, green ref.I know I've posted this before, but one of the reasons I went to the USA v Russia game at Wilderspool in the '95 Emerging Nations, was cos Karl Kirkpatrick was the ref. Being from Warrington, and the rules at the time, I hadn't seen him in action, and preinterweb the LE letterbox was crammed with rants about him. I'll admit, at the game he puzzled a couple of thousand speccies, and players, from both sides. However, you have to learn your trade, go in too deep and learn to swim properly, as it were. KK went on to be ref of the year, and he's a loss to the game now. Let Childs learn. OK, he might have had a bad day at the office, but if he learns and improves.....

I'll add that 31 pens won't have been for nothing, maybe a bit of over zealousy, though.

The ref certainly was "whistle happy" today - I've never seen a ref give so many penalties and have so little control over the game! A game between these two sides was never going to be champagne rugby, but with penalties here there and everywhere and a knock on every other minute I have never heard the whistle so much. I wonder what the longest period was between the ref blowing his whistle was - it can't have been more than a minute.

Most frustrating example of reffing today was when a Bulls player moved off of the mark and got pinged for it - fair enough. Then 20 minutes later a Catalan player does the same thing and the ref only gives him a warning. To be fair at the last second Childs remembered his mistake and gave Bradford a penalty - regardless that sort of stuff always frustrates the fans - but both sets of players were mightily cheesed off at some of the decisions today.

I know a lot of folk will say the same old stuff about the refs not supposed to be the focus etc - and I agree. But I doubt anyone who was actually at the game would say any of these complaints that I and others have raised about the ref today aren't legitimate.

Don't get me wrong, it didn't affect the outcome at all - I think the Bulls were a tad unlucky not to win, but that's down to their own lack of confidence rather "dodgy refs calls", but today was a rare occasion where the ref actually spoiled my enjoyment of the game.

Mick gets a lot of stick on here for his comments about refs and he certainly does go OTT at times, but for the benefit of those who weren't there today, I can tell you Mick's comments are largely justified. Child was almost indescribably bad and was certainly responsible for at least three Catalan tries by giving inexplicable penalties. My mate, who has played a lot of RL and very rarely criticises referees, felt today's game would have been better with no ref at all. I can't remember any game where players were so often penalised in possession, or for dissent, the whole thing descended into farce well before half time with Child inventing new and exciting reasons to blow his whistle almost every minute. It was even worse than Rugby Union.

Having said that, Bradford lost the game themselves, Catalans didn't win it. Having gone in front for the first time in months, it was entirely predictable that the team would implode and toss it away, as they duly did. Catalans were p*ss poor and a decent team would have hit them for fifty, but Bradford are by no stretch of the imagination a decent team.

And when they found our shadows
Grouped around the TV sets
They ran down every lead
They repeated every test
They checked out all the data on their lists
And then the alien anthropologists
Admitted they were still perplexed
But on eliminating every other reason
For our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left
This species has amused itself to death
No tears to cry no feelings left
This species has amused itself to death

Mick gets a lot of stick on here for his comments about refs and he certainly does go OTT at times, but for the benefit of those who weren't there today, I can tell you Mick's comments are largely justified. Child was almost indescribably bad and was certainly responsible for at least three Catalan tries by giving inexplicable penalties. My mate, who has played a lot of RL and very rarely criticises referees, felt today's game would have been better with no ref at all. I can't remember any game where players were so often penalised in possession, or for dissent, the whole thing descended into farce well before half time with Child inventing new and exciting reasons to blow his whistle almost every minute. It was even worse than Rugby Union.

Having said that, Bradford lost the game themselves, Catalans didn't win it. Having gone in front for the first time in months, it was entirely predictable that the team would implode and toss it away, as they duly did. Catalans were p*ss poor and a decent team would have hit them for fifty, but Bradford are by no stretch of the imagination a decent team.

The first two Catalans tries came from four penalties given by Child as did the last, but for what the third one was for, hell knows because the everyone was onside and all square.

No wonder you have players looking bewildered and then frustrated when you have a referee who is hell bent on destroying the game by blowing up for mysterious things.

Never in a million years did we deserve to be penalised that many times when the Dragons were if not worse at trying to keep onside and square.

No shock to any of us then that St Hillaire laid into him at half time when going down the tunnel.

But Child wasn't the reason we lost today, kicking out on the full twice and after we had got level, Menzies knocks-on and then when 22-16 in front he knocks on again (bless him) and then with Sykes throwing the ball in touch and Platt knocking on with the line open, we made far too many crucial mistakes at key points in the game.

But James Child well done beating Steve Ganson's 25-25 all draw performance from 2005 in the game at Odsal vs Widnes.

The ref certainly was "whistle happy" today - I've never seen a ref give so many penalties and have so little control over the game! A game between these two sides was never going to be champagne rugby, but with penalties here there and everywhere and a knock on every other minute I have never heard the whistle so much. I wonder what the longest period was between the ref blowing his whistle was - it can't have been more than a minute.

Most frustrating example of reffing today was when a Bulls player moved off of the mark and got pinged for it - fair enough. Then 20 minutes later a Catalan player does the same thing and the ref only gives him a warning. To be fair at the last second Childs remembered his mistake and gave Bradford a penalty - regardless that sort of stuff always frustrates the fans - but both sets of players were mightily cheesed off at some of the decisions today.

I know a lot of folk will say the same old stuff about the refs not supposed to be the focus etc - and I agree. But I doubt anyone who was actually at the game would say any of these complaints that I and others have raised about the ref today aren't legitimate.

Don't get me wrong, it didn't affect the outcome at all - I think the Bulls were a tad unlucky not to win, but that's down to their own lack of confidence rather "dodgy refs calls", but today was a rare occasion where the ref actually spoiled my enjoyment of the game.

He was appalling mate and I await what Mr Cummings has to say about his performance today.

But YOU promised that you wouldn't do it any more. Off your own back, YOU started a thread to say you have given up focusing on the ref.

You didn't say anything about keeping quiet until they ###### you off again and you throw your toys out of the pram.

Today was impossible ignore Dave.

Would you be happy if on Sunday in the cup semi-final the referee gave 17 first half penalties to Catalans while they themselves were doing just as much holding down and straying offside and yet the referee only gave you 5 penalties?

That is what happened today at Odsal and I'm sorry but I love Rugby League and more importantly my club and to have my enjoyment ruined by a idiot in green who couldn't keep the whistle out of his mouth for more than 20 seconds, a referee who is hell bent on destroying the game then I can't let it pass.

Childs is a young, green ref.I know I've posted this before, but one of the reasons I went to the USA v Russia game at Wilderspool in the '95 Emerging Nations, was cos Karl Kirkpatrick was the ref. Being from Warrington, and the rules at the time, I hadn't seen him in action, and preinterweb the LE letterbox was crammed with rants about him. I'll admit, at the game he puzzled a couple of thousand speccies, and players, from both sides. However, you have to learn your trade, go in too deep and learn to swim properly, as it were. KK went on to be ref of the year, and he's a loss to the game now. Let Childs learn. OK, he might have had a bad day at the office, but if he learns and improves.....

I'll add that 31 pens won't have been for nothing, maybe a bit of over zealousy, though.

Enough about the ref.11 on the spin, beats our record.(see my sig..)

Friday the 14th May seems so long away mate, but I guess in 50 years time when the grandchildren come around I can say that I was there at every game during the famous 11 game losing run which will turn to 12 I guess because it's St Helens away next

Would you be happy if on Sunday in the cup semi-final the referee gave 17 first half penalties to Catalans while they themselves were doing just as much holding down and straying offside and yet the referee only gave you 5 penalties?

That is what happened today at Odsal and I'm sorry but I love Rugby League and more importantly my club and to have my enjoyment ruined by a idiot in green who couldn't keep the whistle out of his mouth for more than 20 seconds, a referee who is hell bent on destroying the game then I can't let it pass.

I watched the Play-off game, Cats v Wires 2 years back.We got a penalty in the 1st minute, kicked the 2.Next penalty we got was on about 49 mins, with a back to back pen, and we scored our try.Game was dead then anyway.

Would you be happy if on Sunday in the cup semi-final the referee gave 17 first half penalties to Catalans while they themselves were doing just as much holding down and straying offside and yet the referee only gave you 5 penalties?

That is what happened today at Odsal and I'm sorry but I love Rugby League and more importantly my club and to have my enjoyment ruined by a idiot in green who couldn't keep the whistle out of his mouth for more than 20 seconds, a referee who is hell bent on destroying the game then I can't let it pass.

Anybody else would get away with that argument Mick, but again, YOU said you wouldn't do this again, not until you got ###### off again.

This is the 2nd game this weekend where you felt the need to slag off the ref, despite promising not to and claiming you were a changed man.

I watched the Play-off game, Cats v Wires 2 years back.We got a penalty in the 1st minute, kicked the 2.Next penalty we got was on about 49 mins, with a back to back pen, and we scored our try.Game was dead then anyway.

Friday the 14th May seems so long away mate, but I guess in 50 years time when the grandchildren come around I can say that I was there at every game during the famous 11 game losing run which will turn to 12 I guess because it's St Helens away next

Lovely, you end your streak, we secure 2nd.After "wide to West", is there a better place to get a win?Believe, mate, it could happen.I'm serious.

He was.He also was in charge the following week, when Wigan won, and seemed to be "less of a home-team ref" than our game. Even with that slanted view on my post, Wigan won cos they deserved to, and this is miles away from Bulls v Dragons.

That was the most bizarre display of referreeing I have ever seen in my entire life. Absolutely had to be seen to be believed. I've been watching this game for a long time now, and I just couldn't fathom what was going on. It was one of those matches when it's got past the booing and everyone is just looking at each other with blank expressions saying WTF?

The only time it seemed to make sense was when he sin-binned Worincy for persistent offending. I mean, the guy had quite literally just run on the field as a sub, so it was clearly a case of mistaken identity (!) but it was Worincy, so every cloud and that...

Perhaps not the greatest achievement ever but it would have been remarkable. At one stage Cats were getting set after set (for reasons not apparent) on the Bulls line and somehow Bradford held out. It was a good effort to almost win the game.